Retractible sliding door



March 10, 1959 w. BENNETT ETAL 2,876,504

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United States PatentO 2,876,504 RETRACTIBLE SLIDING DOOR Walter Bennett, Los Angeles, and Kenneth D. Dohman,

La Habra, Calif assignors to Utility Trailer Manufacunnig Company, Puente, Calif., a corporation of Calicm a Application September 4, 1956, Serial No. 607,746 10 Claims. (Cl. 20-23) I The present invention has to do with sliding doors; that is, with doors that slide in a plane parallel to the plane of the door opening. The invention is particularly well adapted for use on automotive vans or railroad cars, and will be described in its present preferred form as applied to trailer vans, but it is generally applicable wherever a door of the type here described is useful.

For side doors for automotive vans, railroad cars, etc., sliding doors are preferred over the swinging type for various reasons, such for instance as the fact that a sliding door can be opened in many close quarters (as for instance when the vehicle is in loading or unloading position close alongside a platform) where a swinging door cannot be opened. For such reasons sliding side doors have often been adopted.

The general objects of the present invention'are to provide, among other things, a sliding door structure and hanging that does not, in any part, project beyond the outer side face of the vehicle wall when the door is closed, and that does not reduce the interior capacity of the vehicle by projecting any of its parts into the interior. invention to provide a door structure and hanging capable of being entirely contained within the thickness of the wall.

The importance of accomplishing such objectives is appreciated by consideration of the facts that over-all width of highway vehicles as well as of railroad cars is commonly limited by law or other regulations, and that maintenance of maximum interior capacity, within the limited over-all width, is of prime importance in the transport industry.

The present invention provides a structure capable of fully satisfying the above objectives, and having many other-desirable novel features and characteristics all of which will appear from the following description of the present preferred embodiment shown in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation showing trailer vans equipped with the door;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged side elevation of a portion of Fig. 1 with the door in closed position;

Fig. 3 is a further enlarged section, parts being broken away, on line 3-3 of Fig. 2 with the door in closed position;

Fig. 4 is a section on line 4-4 of Fig. 2, with the door in open position;

Fig. 4a is a detail section on line la- 4a 'of Fig. 2;

Fig. 5 is a horizontal section on line 5-5 of'Fig. '2;

Fig. 6 is an enlarged fragmentary elevation showing the upper parts of the door hanger structure;

Figs. '7a and 7b are sections on line.7-'7 of Fig. 6

showing "two different positions;

Fig. 8 is an enlarged fragmentary elevation showing the lower part of the door and the operating handle;

Fig. 9is asection online 99'of Fig. 8; and

Fig. 9a is a detail 'section on line 9a-9a of vFig. 9. ln the drawings the 'door is shown generally at 20,

In other words, it is among the objects of the v adapted to fit into, and close, a doorway in Wall struc ture 22 defined by such framing elements as shown at 24 in Figs. 2 and 5. Wall 22 is shown as composed of inner and outer sheathings 26 and 28 spaced by framing members 24 and structural elements such as shown at 30.

A horizontal rail 32 is mounted in the wall structure extending over the doorway and, in the aspect of Fig. 2', extending some distance to the left. Where the rail extends over the doorway, the space directly under the rail is directly open to the upper end of the doorway (see Fig. 3). In its extent to the left of the doorway, an externally open wall recess 23 accommodates the rail and provides an externally open space under it '(see Figs. 2 and 4) to accommodate the travelling movement of certain parts of the hanger structure, as will appear. It is to be particularly noted at this point that the rail is entirely located within the confines of the wall. In that connection, the rail may be, and preferably is, incorporated into the wall structure as a reinforcing member particularly over the doorway. For instance, it may be welded to the inner and outer wall sheathings 26 and 28.

Preferably the rail is in the general form of an inverted channel with flanged tracks 34 at the lower edges of its depending flanges 36. Two trolleys, generally designated 33 in Fig. 2, run on that rail. As shown in Figs. 3, 4 and 6, these trolleys each have two pairs of track wheels 40 and a truck frame 42. The upper crank pin ends 44 of door supporting shafts 46 are swivelly hung from the truck frames, as by the nut and washer sets 48, to swivel on their vertical axes. The trolleys and crank pins 44 are held in fixed spaced relation by the spacing bar 55 through the ends of which the crank pins 44 extend rotatively. Just below the spacing bar the parts 52 of shafts 46 extend laterally of'crank pins 44, like crank throws, and from their outer ends the elongate portions 54 of the shafts depend. These elongate depending shaft portions 54 extend down, preferably inside the outer sheathing 56 of the door, to or close to the lower door edge. The upper crank pins 44 may, alternatively, be looked at as rotatable or swivelling crank shafts, the offset parts 52 as crank throws of equal throw radii, and the parts 54 as elongated depending crank plus.

The door, as illustratively shown here, comprises a framing composed of such parts as shown at 60 inFigs. 3 and 4, the outer sheathing "56, and an inner sheathing 62. Shaft portions 54 depend through upper framing 60 and downwardly between the outer and inner sheathings. in or at the upper framingll the shafts are journalled in members 64 which, in this design are secured in the framing by the bolts shown at 65 in Fig. 6. The lower end of one member 64 carries a pair of depending stop lugs 66 adapted to be contacted by a shaft lug 68, mounted fixedly on one shaft part 54, to limit the rotation of 54 in both directions with reference to the door. That limitation directly limits the swinging of the associated crank 52 to 'two such positions as shown in Figs. 7a and 712. Because of the tie of the two parts 44 by bar 50, and the tie between'parts 54 by reason 'of their being both journalled on the door, the two crank throws 52 are, generally, constrained to swing with each other through the same angles with relation to the door, and with relation to the plane of the wall. The door may be supported on shafts 54 by any suitable end-thrust bearing arrangement. For example, the lug 68, or its hub affixed to the shaft may bear upwardly against the lower end ofthe associated journal member 64. And the other shaft (the one to the right in Fig. 6) may have a fixed thrust collar 68a bearing up against its associated journal 64.

The spacing-of :shaftparts 44 'by-spacing bar 50, and

of parts 54 by their journalling to the door, are equal, or substantially so; so that the crank throw parts 52 swing always in parallelism, or substantial parallelism, with each other. This parallelism may be somewhat modified, forv reasons explained below. And consequently the stops applied to one shaft 54 limit the swinging of both cranks 52 between such positions as shown in Figs. 7a

and 7b.

The depending shafts 54, as shown here, extend down through the lower door framing 60 and may there be 'journalled in members 70, like journal members 64.

Projecting below the lower framing, the lower shaft ends carry laterally projecting curved locking fingers 72 (Figs. 3' and 9) which co-operate with keepers74, mounted on the lower door framing, or door sill, 24a. As best shown in- Eigs. 9 and 9a these keepers have upstanding front wa1ls76 with lobes 78 at their ends. In the closed door position fingers 72 project in behind the end lobes 78 to hold the lower edge of the door tightly closed.

An operating handle 80 is connected to one of depending shafts 54 (preferably the one carrying the stop lug 68) and normally lies in an externally open recess 82 in the outer face of the door. The handle is connected to 54 by a horizontal pivot pin 84. The handle can thus be swung vertically between such positions as shown in 'Fig. 8; but horizontal swinging movement of the handle necessarily rotates 54 relative to the door. In the normal closed-door position handle 80 lies in recess 82, dropped down behind a keeper 86. To lock the handle, and lock the door in closed position, the handle may be locked down to keeper 86 by, e. g. a padlock (not shown). To. open the door, handle 80 is raised above keeper 86 and swung outwardly, rotating shaft 54 in a clockwise direction, as seen in plan as in Figs. 9 and 5.

In the closed-door position, shown in full lines in Figs. and 9, the door enters and closes the door opening (the opening between the door framings 24 in Fig. 5) and lies within, or substantially wholly within, the wall thickness.

In the design shown in Fig. 5, the door may have an outer sealing head 21, and in the closed position that bead may project slightly beyond the outer wall surface; but that 18. not necessary. The edges of the door may be inclined or angled, as indicated at 21a in Fig. 5, so that the door sealingly wedges into the door opening.

In the door-closed position, cranks 52 stand, in substantial parallelism, at a small angle (say 20 or so) with the plane of the door and wall. That relative position of 52 is shown in Figs. 3 and 7a. In that position stop lug 68 is preferably not against, but is close to, left hand stop 66 (Fig. 7a) and operating handle 80 behind keeper 86, by putting torsional tension on shaft 54 and stressing the cranks 52 in counter-clockwise direction, holds the upper part of the door closed tightly. At the same time, the lower locking fingers 72, stressed in counter-clockwise direction in the position of Fig. 9, hold the lower part of the door tightly closed.

Cranks 52, in the door-closed position, are limited, by the fact that the door is closed tightly inwardly, to such an angular position as spoken of above, so that they cannot closely approach, or pass, a position parallel with the door and wall. If they did that, the right hand shaft 54 would be efiectively on dead center with relation to its tie (through the door) with left hand 54. Rotation of left hand 54 and 52 might then urge right hand 52 counter-clockwise instead of clockwise, with the result of locking the whole system. It is the function of the left hand stop 66 (Fig. 7a) to finally prevent the cranks from being thrown too close to dead center position.

To open the door, handle 80 is raised and swung outwardly. That movement rotates both shafts 54 and both cranks 52 clockwise (as seen in plan in Figs. 5, 7 and 9) relative to the door. That swinging of the cranks moves the upper part of the door outwardly in the doorway and relative to the wall; To the extent that the fit of th 54 will then swing clockwise about the stationary axes of 44; the door moving along a curved path.

Cranks S2 swing outward to positions extending outwardly from the door and wall plane by a large angle, illustrated here as approximately ninety degrees. The movement is stopped in such position by shaft lug 68 engaging the righthand stop 66, as in Fig. 7b. 'In that position of the cranks the upper part of the door is moved out clear of the outer face of the wall.

Clockwise rotation of shafts 54 swings locking fingers 72 around clockwise to relative positionsuch as indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 9, clearing the fingers from keeper wall 78 and thus unlocking the lower part of the door. During and at the completion of the unlocking movements, the door hangs from its overhead support on the trolleys. The door, now being-outwardly offset from its points of support, tends to press its lower end inwardly so that, although fingers 72 release their engagement with 78 they may, and usually are, pressed inwardtrolleys 38 and the suspended door to the left-to such a position as indicated in broken lines at the left in Fig. 5. In that position the left hand trolley brings up against the stop 100, with the door clear of the door openings:

Upon manual release of the handle the door, suspended from above, cants inwardly toward or against the wall-a It is one of the features of the invention that, without the necessity of a lower track to guide the door, its lower end tends to press against the wall. While his obvious that the overhead track and crank arrangement shown here could be duplicated at the bottom of the door, to positively move the door bottom in and out and to guide it, the design and arrangement here shown is far more simple and keeps the door bottom against 1 the wall just as efiectively as would the extra track;

And the extra lower track would be subject (as it is in all such two-track installations) to gathering dust and other detritus.

Closing and locking the door involves operations essentially in simple reversal of the opening operations and needs no detailed description. I

It has been said above that the spacings of crank pins 44 and of shafts 54 are equal. While that is essentially true one or the other of those spacings may be modified for the purpose of putting the parts under strain tending to hold the door tightly closed. For instance, the locked handle position may be such as to torsionally strain left hand shaft 54 and its crank 52 in the door,- closing direction. It, then, the spacing by space bar 50 be made slightly less than the spacing of shafts 54 by the door, the spacing link, formed by the door will be put under compressive-stress which tends to press that part of the door closed. The same action may be had by making right hand crank 52 slightly shorter than the left hand one. r

Recess 23, with a bottom wall 23a as shown in- Fig. 4. extends, under the rail, to the efiective left-hand end of the rail. Beyond that end the recess is enlarged, with an outwardly sloping bottom wall 23b, as best shown in Fig. 4a. The rail may be ended at this enlarged recess portion; or, what amounts to the same thing, its bottom flanges 84 and its front flange 36 may be cut away in that enlarged recess portion, as shown at 34a and 36a in Fig. 4a. Stop 100 is removableaand when it is removed the door can be moved further to the left to move the left hand trolley into the enlarged recess portion over the sloping wall 23b and off the effective end of the rail. That trolley may then be moved down and out. By further movement of the door to the left, the right hand trolley can be freed; and thus the whole door dismounted.

Due to the fact that the door moves inwardly to enter the doorway, it may be tightly sealedin any conventional manner. The present preferred :manner of scaling is shown in the drawings. At the bottom of the door (Fig. 3) a sealing strip 110 bears againstthe keepers 74 and against threshold strips 112 which, with the keepers, make a continuous threshold stop across the bottom of the doorway. The side edges of the door may be similarly sealed.

The space over the top of the door, and the whole of recess 23 which communicates with that space, is sealed with a flap 104 of rubber, neoprene or similar material. The flap (see Figs. 3, 4 and 4a) is hung from its upper edge in a clamp bead 106 which is inclined to stress the flap inwardly against the wall and door. The door may have a sealing strip 108 at its top engaging the flap. When the door moves out (Fig. 4) it raises the dependent flap. Fig. 2 shows the length of the flap, extending from a forward end at 104a where that end, spaced ahead of the doorway, is secured to the wall. The rear end of the flap, at 104b, may be "free; or similarly secured.

We claim:

1. In combination with a wall structure having spaced opposite wall surfaces and having a door-way therethrough, and a door adapted to move in and out of the doorway along a line of movement transverse of the plane of the wall; a substantially horizontal rail located within the wall substantially wholly between the two opposite wall surfaces, said rail having a portion located over the doorway and a portion extending some distance to the side of the doorway, said wall structure having a horizontally extending wall recess under the rail, said recess being open at one face of the wall and communicating at one end with the upper part of the doorway, trolley means mounted to travel on said rail, a pair of cranked shafts having pin portions swivelly carried on vertical axes on the trolley means, means spacing said pin portions apart along a line substantially parallel to the rail, said shafts having crank throw portions extending, at the level of said open recess, in substantial mutual parallelism in a horizontal direction from the pin portions, and having shaft portions depending substantially vertically from the outer ends of the crank throw portions, means journalling the depending shaft portions on the door on axes spaced apart in the plane of the door by a distance substantially equal to the spacing of the pin portions, means supporting the door on said depending shaft portions, means for rotating said shaft portions and crank throw portions relative to the door, and said crank throw portions being of sui'ficient radial length, when moved to positions extending laterally of the plane of the door and wall, to move the door to a position outward of said one face of the wall.

2. The combination defined in claim 1, in which the door has spaced opposite faces and in which the depending shaft portions are located between the planes of said opposite faces.

3. The combination defined in claim 1, and in which said rail and said trolley means constitute the sole support of said cranked shafts and of the door supported on said shafts.

4. The combination defined in claim 3 and including also cooperating means carried on the lower ends of the depending shaft portions and mounted in the lower part of the doorway and acting to lock the lower edge of the door by virtue of rotation of said shaft portions in one direction relative to the door.

5. The combination defined in claim 1 and including also cooperating means carried on the lower ends of the depending shaft portions and mountedin the lower part of the doorway and acting to lock the lower edge of the door by virtue of rotation ofsaid shaft portions in one direction relative to the door.

6. In combination with a wall structure having spaced opposite wall surfaces and having a door-way therethrough, and a door adapted to move in and out of the doorway along a line of movement transverse of the plane of the wall; a substantially horizontal rail located within the wall substantially wholly between the two opposite wall surfaces and rigidly attached to the wall structure, said rail having .a portion located over the doorway and a portion extending some distance beyond the side of the doorway, said wall structure having a horizontally extending wall recess under substantially the whole rail portion that extends beyond the side of the doorway, said recess being open at one face of the wall and communicating at one end with the upper part of the doorway, trolley means mounted to travel on said rail, means supporting the door from said trolley means, said supporting means being contractible and extendable, at the level of the open recess, between a position lying wholly within the wall and a position extending outwardly of the said one face of the wall, said supporting means in its extended position being adapted to travel in said open wall recess and supporting the door in a position outside said one wall face, the extent of said rail and recess beyond the side of the doorway being sufiicient to allow movement of the trolley means and the door and its supporting means to positions substantially clear of the doorway.

7. The combination defined in claim 6, in which said recess extends beyond the end of the rail remote from the doorway, and including a removable trolley stop near that end of the rail, all so that by removal of said stop the trolley means may be removed from the rail at its said end and removed from the wall through the recess beyond said rail end.

8. The combination defined in claim 6 and also ineluding a horizontally extending flexible sealing flap secured at its upper edge .to said one wall face above said open recess and extending the full length of said recess and across the upper part of the door opening.

9. The combination defined in claim 1 and also including a horizontally extending flexible sealing flap secured at its upper edge to said one wall face above said open recess and extending the full length of said recess and across the upper part of the door opening.

10. The combination defined in claim 1, and in which said rail and said trolley means constitute the sole support of said cranked shafts and of the door supported on said shafts, and also including a horizontally extending flexible sealing flap secured at its upper edge to said one wall face above said open recess and extending the full length of said recess and across the upper partof the door opening.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 755,049 Saling et al. Mar. 22, 1904 967,765 Hanson Aug. 16, 1910 981,709 Staley et al. Jan. 17, 1911 2,101,942 Haseltine Dec. 14, 1937 2,698,466 Mcl-lenry Jan. 4, 1955 2,774,998 Kiekert Dec. 25, 1956 

